Comments, relating to the topic, are welcome, add a great deal to a blog, but must be in English, with no profanity, hate-filled insults, or links (unless pre-approved).




Saturday, February 04, 2017

a positive life



If you use my blog roll, you may have noted that I moved it to the bottom of the sidebar. There were a couple of reasons for that. Some of the blogs I recommend were not updating with new entries. To make it easier for me to find them, I opened the list to show all. It no longer matters how long the list goes as it won't overpower other info in that sidebar. When I have time, I am visiting new blogs as I come across them. Recommendations are always welcome. If you comment here a few times, I'll be checking your blog to see if it's simpatico, with shared interests in creativity, nature, art, writing, and philosophy of life.

As part of this shift, I am (temporarily or otherwise) moving links, from blogs that have turned basically political, to the sidebar of my own political blog-- Rainy Day Rant, which seems a better fit. I also went searching for new blog links to add there-- particularly of a partisan right slant, since most of what was there leaned or was virulently left. I figure this will be an ongoing adjustment to get the right blogs listed where political, often partisan, ideas and issues are explored.

Blogs can be important places to discuss issues, debate differences, and attempt to make points that will help others better understand what is happening-- as they see it. I believe it's useful to see how the 'other' side thinks. That is though one main thing with a blog-- they are how someone thinks, opinions. 

Blogs, none of them, are a place to go for facts-- although they can sometimes direct us to facts. In a time like this, even with mainstream newspapers, it's wise to check anything political multiple places. False facts are everywhere and coming from the right and the left. If it sounds too good or horrible to be true, maybe it's not.

I've made a point before and it's even stronger now that politics aren't for this blog. I might write about important cultural issues but won't be posting on politics at all. Many who read this blog come from outside the US. Others want a place free of vitriol, a place that can inspire them. That's what I want when I spend time thinking on an idea for here.

For me, politics is why I have the rant, but even there, I try to explore issues in a way that is more about understanding than propagandizing. I'm a moderate. I have strong ideas on certain issues, but they don't fit partisan boxes (which often makes me unpopular with left and right). Because of also being a writer, process interests me as much often as result. I can get worried or angry but am trying to keep it in proportion to what I can actually change.

I get it we are in a turbulent time. The latest imbroglio over who can temporarily or even permanently travel or move to the US is a good example. Globalists and nationalists see that issue very differently, and both believe they are right. As caring people, we can agree to disagree. Issues are seldom as simple as we might want to think.  When I wanted to write about the subject for the rant, I learned some things about our immigration and refugee policies that I hadn't known. It's complicated.

The thing is-- living in a state of constant anger and fear is bad for health. In a time of great change, which is where not just us but the world is, some of those emotions are bound to be a problem-- more for some than others. Some of us find it easier to let things go as a part of our temperament. I do understand the upset. The United States has a new leader who is an unknown quantity, being defined mostly by his enemies, while he is trying to instigate major changes in policies that one third of the country liked as they were; one third despised; and one third tried not to know anything about.

So for me, I am not sure how bad things are. It is a bummer when a person cannot trust the news to tell us, given how they have already operated. That might be their fault-- or maybe they are being manipulated by someone savvier than they are. In an uncertain time like this, I am a glass is half full kind of gal-- not saying it's always easy.


Lamb pictures make a person feel good, but being a shepherd has its ups and downs with losses as well as joys. I could write here about the tragic stuff (raising livestock gives me a huge stock of such stories), but what would that help anyone? 

I believe in what I posted above-- as much as possible, think on the positive to live a positive life. 

If thinking or acting on something can change a future action, then it can be necessary to live with the uncertainty and negativity for awhile-- just don't keep it there when there is no action possible and it's a matter of finding personal equilibrium. The ewe below did not have triplets. Lambs in the beginning have a hard time staying with the right mama. Eventually it works out... for most of them.


If you haven't already read this book, [7 Habits of Highly Effective People], I recommend it. The best lesson I got from it was to put my main effort into areas I have control. So trying to be responsibly informed (not easy today), letter writing (when we think we know), joining effective groups, pulling lambs, checking fences, all might need to be done. The outcome of our actions isn't always (or sometimes ever) in our control

I've had to apply that especially where it comes to my books. I can put them out there, do all I can to get them seen, but I can't control whether they will be seen or how others view them. To be happy, I have to do what I can and then let that result go. Currently, I believe the world (not just the US) is giving us plenty of practice in doing that.

5 comments:

Brig said...

Well said and pretty much how I feel. I have quit reading or linking the bloggers that have gone off the rails this last year with ranting and raving, without doing any hard due diligence. A positive life is much more productive, to my way of thinking.

Thanks for the book recommendation, I will check it out.

Just finished Red Hawk Christmas, enjoyed it!!! Nice to have a book about older women, hope there will be more along those lines.

Rain Trueax said...

Thank you, Brig. Sonoran Christmas has a 60 year old heroine but it's historical as is Rose's Gift both novellas set in Arizona. I definitely plan to write more with older heroines. Oh and Where Dreams Go had a 40 something heroine who has an unexpected romance but again it's historical but set in Oregon.

Tabor said...

I am a fiscal moderate and a social liberal. I am afraid being calm is not going to ease my deep concerns. I do not blame the press as they get at least three different versions of something from the White House person. They also find it difficult to define what is actually being said when complicated issues are defined in very simple talk. If Obama had said that he could walk down 5th Avenue and shoot someone and his voters would still support him, I can guarantee that those voters would set him straight in no time. Those voters believe in laws and courts that argue those laws and co-equal powers. I do thank you for trying to find some balance in bloggers and I will look at your list and certainly read any reasonable arguments from the conservative side as I know that there is much common ground outside of the circus of politics.

Rain Trueax said...

A lot of what Trump says is humor as he sees it but is taken as serious. I am quite sure he didn't mean that one literally. You know the funny part about him is the various descriptions of who he is. Many who have known him for years say he's one way and then we read all these other stories. I have no idea who he is.

What concerns me right now is all the attacks on Trump as a person, attacks encouraging violence. I read that Howard Stern felt Trump wanted to be loved and this hate constantly bombarding him could make him physically sick-- which some like Bill Maher would love (karma isn't something he probably believes in). My concern though for the personal attacks is that if he's not emotionally stable, it will make it worse and who could possibly want that in someone with so much power. I think attacking on issues is better and leads to real debates which insults and ugly comparisons do not. It ends the subject.

We took out a membership in Sierra Club right after the election and donated two other places that we felt would need more help in a more austere environment-- but then learned Sierra Club has some time back gone very social. I might not mind that in some ares like supporting gay marriage, but it dilutes what they do. I think we'll try Wilderness Society next. That's the problem with the organizations that are set up to defend certain issues, they don't always stick to their main issue and some of the other stuff, for someone like me, is unlikely to make me happy.

The main thing about staying calm is not to help Trump or conservatives. It's for a person's own good. It doesn't do any good to stay in a rage. Work on what you can but let the results go. Also remember for eight years, half the country felt like you do. That is the irony of this time

Rain Trueax said...

One thing about those political blogs where they were moved. It's not about me being angry at them. It's about not wanting to deal with the negativity. It's a tough time and I need places to go where I can be uplifted. My own blog needs to be one of them.