Hello Everyone!
A crazed news cycle, Watching the horizon, Instincts, Daily hikes & Too much yellow jasmine sap!
I managed to wake up not all that long after sunrise today which is good considering I was once again awake late last night. Over the last many days it has been difficult to get to bed early mainly because I keep binging out on the news cycle which I guess given the scenario is kind of unavoidable to one degree or another. As much as I would like to avoid getting too wrapped up in it all it is also very difficult not to and perhaps even foolish.
What I mean there is that when major players (well pretty much 'all' players) on the world stage begin re-structuring the global economy, civility and basically the fabric of the world as we know it... there is a lot to be concerned about and I am a bit too much of a realist to not have alarm bells sounding in my head over it all.
Witnessing the suffering of others, the displacement of folks, the horror of life and material loss and so much more makes it so that words elude me for describing it. Then of course there is the sad tragedy of it all, the dread, the anxiety and at every turn those things are being 'dialed up' by various entities and individuals for who knows what reasons.
All of which is made perceptually worse by the algorithmic mechanisms that deliver 'the user experience' and are geared to serve more content, keep that advertiser revenue pouring in and of course keep the user coming back for more. The resulting echo chamber effect of all that 'noise' makes having any kind of real conversation about it futile (while inside said echo chamber) not to mention how impossible (or just exceedingly difficult) it becomes to establish and maintain an impartial view.
Heck, it even makes 'partial' views skewed given how rapidly the 'echo chamber effect' tends to radicalize/polarize folks who are consuming content even marginally... and at this point it is safe to say that folks are not marginally consuming content. To re-frame that, I am not marginally consuming content and cannot think of many folks that I know who do and yeah no matter how good my mental firewall is there is an effect happening.
To be clear here, I often divert my focus to content that I enjoy, find insightful, useful, helpful or whatever... but I also have to stay abreast of what is going on in the world beyond my self-interests and curiosity because well everything has a ripple effect and it is nice (when possible) to see what is looming on the horizon much the same way that I watch the weather.
That is in no way to say that I always know what I am seeing and often just seeing that there is possibly 'something' there... that in and of itself is enough for me because I can always try to figure out what it really is later. The best example that I can give is that I once saw an actual storm forming super quickly and made the quick call to put up the gear I was working with and head for cover pronto.
When it began dropping grapefruit sized hail not long afterwards I was like: Well it was definitely not rain! The thing is that I had been thinking that I could work through whatever rain might happen, never considered hail or even a tornado... but in the pit of my stomach I just knew something was coming and sought shelter without hesitation.
I have no real idea how many times now those gut decisions have pivoted my life in one direction or another often 'on a dime' so to speak. To say that I have been lucky would be disregarding that fundamental contribution of following my instincts first and asking questions later. Luck may well play a part in things but for me to rely on it would be folly.
While relying on my instincts is nice they are often useless without the direct application of thinking things through, looking over the available options and adapting accordingly even if that adaptation has to occur to the thinking itself. In other words remaining flexible and being capable of changing the immediate goals, goal posts, playing field or whatever you want to call it 'on the fly' is essential for an effective response.
On a different note, the morning is dragging on here and the sun is starting to warm things up so I think that I will eventually have to get outdoors and start doing something sooner or later. I really do have a lot that I need to be working on and it is good that I have not been pushing my limits too much and doing stuff slowly and methodically. Life has in other words been pretty 'fluid' and nothing that I have been doing has been hectic or all that exhausting.
Keeping that pace each day has been such a gradual process but overall I think that I have settled into a good routine with doing the daily chores, working on projects and of course devoting a big portion of my time to these entries. Things are just really getting started as the greenery starts to come back with the warmer weather and that area in the meadow that I mowed is now rapidly approaching 'lush green carpet' status with new growth.
Its neat doing those hikes each day and 'checking things out' around the property as springtime starts to set in but for the most part I keep mentally cataloging all the stuff that needs attention and/or intervention like with the kudzu or vegetation infringing upon the roads or trails and so forth and so on. Everything is always such an active process and following through means I have to file stuff away in memory and in a timely manner schedule and follow through on it unless of course it gets forgotten, delayed or disregarded.
On some level I find deep satisfaction in juggling all that stuff and maintaining an extended hyper-awareness of the world immediately around me as if it itself were a living being and reviewing the cause and effect of impact (going either way) based on the direct knowledge that I have available. From there it is just taking responsibility for my own impact, doing mitigation and generally being a good steward of land or as I like to put it to myself: Letting it be a good steward of me.
Anyway, I never mentioned it but yesterday when I was cutting all those vines off the cherry trees I noticed a few wild bees buzzing around both the yellow jasmine and the cherry blossoms. Given that the only flowers that I have seen are those kinds I was happy to leave them alone and meander on to other trees that needed vine removal.
Most of those vines were way out of control. Plus getting in around the bases of those trees with mounds of pine needles and fallen logs was creepy to say the least. In short I was glad that it was still cold enough that I did not have to overly concern myself with snake activity but like the saying goes 'you can never be too careful' and I kept an eye out for yellow jackets, spiders, scorpions, nests, vermin and such per usual just to be safe.
Yesterday and today are probably the last few 'safe' days in regards to keeping a keen eye out so I am going to have to get to doing whatever I can that is even mildly dodgy now while I can. So, burning the brush piles, raking the leaves and doing all that dodgy stuff has to take priority over the coming days.
Okay, it is now a few hours after sunset and I am pretty wiped out after today's activities. I am fading fast but it is worth mentioning that I did some research into that yellow jasmine and whoa is that stuff pretty toxic. Given that I have been cutting and handling a lot of it the last few weeks I am wondering if I may have over-exposed myself a wee bit to it. It would definitely help explain why I have been feeling the way that I have been.
Alright, I am going to keep this entry short and sweet and get on with the editing. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.
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