BILLBOARD WISDOM

You’re traveling down the Interstate, 70 MPH, maybe 75, even up to 80 if you have to pass a slow-coach driver who thinks 68 is fast enough. Off to the right you see billboards. They’re everywhere. Companies approach property owners offering them long leases for what seems like found money, and then put up billboard foundations.

If you can slow down for a minute, maybe even down to the regulation 70 MPH recommended by some states, you might see something interesting. An encouraging phrase. A wisp of kindness. A fact that inspires you to do something, too.

I try to stay off the Interstate because it’s really not on my way to where I want to go, most days; and also because I like traveling at 60 MPH or even less. So I take what is now a county road, though it used to be a state highway, back in its day.

And on my way I pass billboards. Here are a few I’ve enjoyed:

Yes, indeed-Do Thy Best

 

It always has....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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My youngest daughter was in California for a job interview and came across one that read: DO WHAT YOU LOVE. So I searched and found a DIY billboard with that message.

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The thing I especially liked about the billboards on www.values.com was the phrase Pass It On.

Right! If it’s worth looking at, reading, and ingesting, then pass it on.

You never know where wisdom/encouragement/inspiration will appear. Keep your eyes open. It may be on a billboard near you.

 

My favorite advice

  SPRING!

[I know, Spring came nearly a month ago. But I'm just now seeing it for real.]

Yes, indeed, Spring arrived!! Did you see signs?

S - Sunshine - Snow! - Sparrows - Surprise Lilies already showing above ground

P - Peonies - Parks open - the "puddlewonderful" season (thank you e e cummings)

R - Rhubarb - Rainy days (wear your cute boots)

I - Iris beginning to show - Inspiration everywhere you look!

N - New-ness all around - Nesting birds

G - Gardens - Grass - Green & Gold

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I had two daffodils bloom already--wasn't even sure they'd survived the winter, but they did.

Birds are house-building, courting, some of the robins are already pregnant. 

And just in case I've gotten all goofy about how wonderful spring is, along came 50-mph wind gusts to remind me that it ain't all sweetness and light in springtime!

Whatever you're seeing in your springtime environment, enjoy it as long as you can.

'Til next time,

Blessings from

Thursday's Child

  

 POETRY

Do you know WENDELL BERRY? Here's what the Poetry Foundation says about him:

Poet, novelist, and environmentalist Wendell Berry lives in Port Royal, Kentucky near his birthplace, where he has maintained a farm for over 40 years. Mistrustful of technology, he holds deep reverence for the land and is a staunch defender of agrarian values. He is the author of over 50 books of poetry, fiction, and essays. His poetry celebrates the holiness of life and everyday miracles often taken for granted.

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Here's a sample of Berry's poetry, called "The Peace of Wild Things":

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

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Here's another one, which he calls "A Warning to My Readers":

Do not think me gentle
because I speak in praise
of gentleness, or elegant
because I honor the grace
that keeps this world. I am
a man crude as any,
gross of speech, intolerant,
stubborn, angry, full
of fits and furies. That I
may have spoken well
at times, is not natural.
A wonder is what it is.

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And finally, one he calls "The Real Work":

It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come our real work,

and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.

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There you have it--an introduction to American poet Wendell Berry. If you look him up online, you'll find many of his poems, as well as more biographical notes. In a library, you may find several of his 50 books of poetry!

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Wishing you blessed days as we go forward!

Thursday's Child

  LAUGHTER!

[I'm repeating this post because . . . well, because I think a lot of people need to remember that laughter is important to us human folks. If you're in a low place in your life at the moment, see if there isn't something you can laugh about. If it's a really really low place, try for a smile, however weak, or even a light giggle. I'll join you.]

My laughter tank has been running low lately. When I began looking for quotations to illustrate this post, I discovered what I've always known (how's that for logic?)--laughter and pain are considered by many, many people to be two sides of the same coin.

Okay, I can work with that. I don't laugh when things are going badly. Say, for example, my car doesn't start, or the garage door spring won't lift the door when I push the button, or I slip on the front steps and skin my knee (if I'm lucky and don't go into sprain/broken bone country) . . . none of those qualified for the slightest chuckle. Not even in retrospect.

But I do know that when I'm feeling low, when my emotions have managed to delude me into thinking nothing good will ever happen again (rare, but it has happened), then I'm ready for relief. I've been known to watch a TV series that used to send me into gales of laughter, but if I'm in that low-down place, nothing sounds or looks funny.

I love Erma Bombeck for her home-grown humor. She saved my bacon on more than one occasion when I had a houseful of little kids all needing something different, and I just needed a little peace and quiet. She could laugh at herself and her situation--somewhat like mine--and I was eased.

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This past winter I had a long spell of nothing-funny-about-anything. In those periods I can't read, I don't want to write, knitting/sewing/cooking don't interest or distract me. 

To have some voices in the house, I put on a DVD--TV series, movie, whatever; I don't remember just what it was. And within 20 minutes I had laughed out loud twice. Twice!

Those moments of laughter brought me back into the human race.

(Thank you, Mark Twain--for reminding me that I do have "one really effective weapon" in my personal arsenal.)

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Why would we waste any of our days mired in sadness or anger or fear? Well, apparently we can't banish them entirely. Can you imagine day after day after day of laughter? Important to have a balance. Sadness is a natural thing to happen to us--we all lose something or someone. Anger rises when we least expect it. Fear? Oh, yeah, fear is always around waiting to pounce.

So a little laughter each day may save it from being wasted? Hmm. Need to think about that for a while. But I'm 99.44% sure I can live with it.

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Do you have someone you can laugh with? My closest friends are people who smile or giggle or chortle or double over with mirth at the same things that hit me that way. Doesn't have to be trading one-liners. Think about it. 

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As time passes, I'm learning to let go of more and more things that used to get under my skin and keep me in a constant state of irritation. More things strike me as funny. Or nutty. Or absurd.

Smiling comes easier. (Remember the old joke? "Smile! People will wonder what you're up to.") I smile a lot. People at the grocery store and Walmart smile back. Maybe they wonder what I'm up to. Or, maybe, they know.

Have a blessed week . . . filled with laughter, and joy.

Thursday's Child