Giving The Gift of Caring!

By GrannyMumantoog, a Trail Mix Contributor

Another holiday season is upon us. I know this year has been an especially difficult for some of us here on the Trail. Things seem bleak and we struggle to know what to do, how to cope.

Over the years I’ve done a lot of volunteer work, as well as work for (meager) pay in human services. I’ve seen a lot of suffering in my lifetime, both personally and professionally, but it never fails to amaze me that when I help another person I feel wonderful!

No matter what is going on in my life or the world around me, I get lovely moments of joy when I help other people. Some of my happiest moments came serving holiday meals at soup kitchens.

It’s really a very selfish act! So, especially at this time of year, I’d like to invite everyone to be selfish!

Below you can read a poem that I actually wrote about 35 years ago. As you read it you may notice that not much has changed.

Don’t be discouraged.

Just pick one thing on one line of that poem and make it your way to help others…individuals or society at large. I know that much of what I did might not have made a difference. But I also know that there were some people whose lives were changed by something I said or did.

No matter how low I get I can always conjure up an image of a child or a mother I know I helped in some way, who may have even said thank you.

Those thoughts and mental images lead me to think there could be others I may not personally know about, but knowing it or not knowing it doesn’t negate the good that was done.

So, at those moments I can smile and thank God I was there. You don’t even have to believe in God to care about humanity or our planet.

Our Mother’s Cry

They tell me that it all began
One bright day, long ago.
It started as the simplest plan
The universe would know.

We all were born one family
Where everyone would care.
All made to live in harmony,
Earth’s riches meant to share.

This family was our Mother’s pride,
She loved each special race.
We loved the home she did provide,
Each creature, every place.

What happened to our loving clan?
Where did it all go wrong?
It wasn’t in the early plan
That some did not belong.

Our land, sea, air and creatures too,
Have suffered from abuse.
Some do still care. Are we too few
To be of any use?

Some creatures are no longer here.
Some air can’t be inhaled.
Some water is not clean and clear.
Some land has been assailed.

Some children cry alone at night.
Some grown-ups turn away.
Some people think they know what’s right.
Some might speak out…someday.

Some hungry people sit and weep.
Some will not learn to share.
Some have no place in which to sleep.
Some simply stand and stare.

Some shades of skin are not allowed.
Some hide behind a wall.
Some try to teach us to be proud.
Some will not look at all.

Some women live with pain and fear.
Some rage cannot be heard.
Some men to violence adhere.
Some just don’t say a word.

The Mother of us all begins
To wonder when and how
Her family will repent the sins
That make her suffer now.

Yes, our Mother Earth is crying.
She sheds sad tears tonight.
She sees her family dying.
She fears the end in sight.

She begs us, with her last appeal,
To recognize our worth.
And let the power of love unseal
The fate of our home on Earth.

Happy Holidays with love from Sue (aka Granny)

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33 thoughts on “Giving The Gift of Caring!”

  2. Granny

    Absolutely love the poem.  The damage done by man continues and only man can halt if not reverse it.

     

  4. Well, yesterday the late night comics won the electoral college vote.

    So did anyone catch the strange response of trump yesterday to the killing of the Russian ambassador to Turkey?  After Trump offered no condolences to Castro’s family upon his passing (compared with Obama’s statement to them), he tweets out condolences to Karlov’s family upon his killing.  Ok, ok, Russia is not Cuba and Karlov was no Castro, but really.  I think it was right of Obama and right of Trump. I guess this buddy, buddy thing with Russia nd trump has some substance to it.  I await the winning to begin.

  5. Pogo – I am waiting for one of the intelligence agencies to leak something very damning and we stand back to see if the Communists in the Congress have enough brass to bring treason charges against the floater.

  7. Lovely sentiments. How I wish the goodwill at this time of year was not limited to “this time of year.”

    When I am trying to drag myself out of the mental dumpster that can latch onto my coordinates, I reach for art: books, paper, ink, and scissors. Creativity lifts me. Mine or someone else’s.

     

  9. Well, you have to read today’s Plum Line piece by Paul Waldman.

    We are SCREWED and trump’s followers were duped.

    Meanwhile, Trump’s sons are showing their own entrepreneurial spirit. They just created a new nonprofit organization called the Opening Day Foundation and are soliciting contributions. Here’s what you get for a cool $1 million donation to the foundation, which is supposed to go to unspecified “conservation” efforts:

    Prospective million-dollar donors to the “Opening Day 2017″ event — slated for Jan. 21, the day after inauguration, at Washington, D.C.’s Walter E. Washington Convention Center — receive a “private reception and photo opportunity for 16 guests with President Donald J. Trump,” a “multi-day hunting and/or fishing excursion for 4 guests with Donald Trump, Jr. and/or Eric Trump, and team,” as well as tickets to other events and “autographed guitars by an Opening Day 2017 performer.” 

    That’s right: The day after he assumes office as president of the United States — when you might think his schedule would be pretty packed with presidenting and stuff — Trump will take time out of his day to hang out with people who ponied up a million dollars to his sons’ “foundation.” Now for all we know, this foundation will be a completely legitimate charity that will do extraordinary work to make the world a better place. But let’s just say that the family’s record on this score is less than encouraging.

    You may recall how outraged Trump and pretty much every other Republican were at the idea that the Clinton Foundation — which actually does good work — could receive a large contribution from a donor who might at some later point have a meeting with the secretary of state. They described this as the absolute height of corruption, insider dealing so vile as to demand that Clinton be jailed at the earliest possible opportunity.

    Sigh…

  10. Last year, I was mourning the recent loss of a dear, dear friend. I was bereft.

    Then I happened upon something in my Twitterfeed. This series from The National Gallery, London, explores angels. Now, I never thought myself the angel type; I’m more Bugs Bunny. But these angels run the gamut, and at least a few shared the northern Italian features of my friend. Lovely, benevolent, inspiring, frightening. All of them creations of some artist who knew their gift and craft.

    And the wire fox terriers in the house sang their approval.

     

  13. ha PatD, you were a bit tardy getting here this morning, was worried. Excusable after posting yesterday’s fun thread. Lots of LoLs!

  16. GrannyM….   great post!  great poem!  beautiful sentiments!

    Because of this post I’ve decided to bring a check with me to the library tomorrow morning when I bring back my book….   thanks for reminding us to be “selfish”…

    now if someone could only convince Frump to do the same.    I’ve also decided not to call him president….   he’s Frump to me and Frump he will remain.  I have no respect for the man.

     

  17. fun story from people:

    Nothing gives President Obama the chills like the “creepy” decorative snowmen that have made their home at the White House for the holidays.

    After confessing his snowman phobia to PEOPLE earlier this month, the president was forced to face his fears last week when unnamed White House staffers placed several snowmen outside the windows of the Oval Office.

    White House photographer Pete Souza snapped a photo of one the snowmen peeking in on the president while he sat at his desk signing end-of-the-year bills.

    [….]

    “Sometimes you gotta have fun,” Souza wrote. “For the past three weeks, there have been four snowmen on display in the Rose Garden … We’ve been joking that we should move the snowmen a few feet closer to the Oval Office every day to see if anyone noticed. Then we realized the snowmen were too heavy to easily lift. But finally this morning before the President came to the office, some helpful staff — I won’t say who — moved all the snowmen so each one was peeking through a different window into the Oval.”

    The president previously told PEOPLE that he thinks the snowmen have a “whole kind of Chucky element to them.”

    “They’re a little creepy,” he added. 

  21. Does anyone know if deadbeat’s Tower will be flooded when the Oceans rise ? Or, is it on one of Manhattan’s hills ? Even if it is above the coming high water mark, the Deadbeat Tower will only be accessible by boat or hellacopeter or majerk spell.

    Saying my farewells to FL and LA today. They died by suicide.

  22. tsar vladimir said yesterday that the assassination of Ambassador karlov was, meant to derail the Syrian peace process. By ‘peace process’, the tsar meant genocide. He makes a desert and calls it peace.

  23. Craig hopefully it was a rapid goodbye.  I had two dogs who loved squeaky toys.  It did not matter what the toy was as long as it had a squeaker.  On first chomp they seemed to go into competition as to the first to destroy the squeak.  Sometimes, not often a squeaker would last up to fifteen minutes.  Usually a lot less.  If it was less than a minute we would return the dud for another one.  Mostly under ten minutes was the span of time necessary to endure rapid squeaks of a toy.  A toy doomed.  Sometimes it quit without warning, sometimes it would make strange squeaks for a short bit.  No matter, the squeaker was toast and we could then enjoy playing with a silent toy.

    Why you ask did we buy squeaky toys?  Because it gave the dogs happiness for a few minutes of a dog’s day. A day of eating, laying about, playing, eating, playing, much napping, tail wagging and producing a happiness in the dog’s “masters and mistresses”.  They did not own the dogs so much as the dogs did rule the owners.

  24. Ahhhhh…  Sammy is smiling.   Hey Sammy…   who’s a good dog,…  you are.

    If you really want animals that rule the owners….  try cats (BlueB, I know you already know this)…

  26. XR, the seas would have to rise a bit to get to drumpf’s NY tower – it’s about 8 blocks up from the East River, a couple blocks south of Central Park.  Prolly 50-75 feet above sea level. Sorry

  27. XR: Saying my farewells to FL and LA today. They died by suicide.

    If I’ve said it once, I’ve said 4,563 times. Yankees don’t move to Florida to save the state’s extraordinarily fragile environment. They demand low taxes, cheap housing, adequate medical care, congenial neighbors and a nice climate. Everything else costs money. Ask tony and Craig and Pat, et al.

    School taxes? A living wage for those who care for them?  You’ve got to be joking.

    I have only traveled through LA a couple of times; I sense it is better, but not by much.

  28. Geez it wasn’t bad enough I had to tolerate the Bernie crowd for the Washington Primary caucus, but now some of the jerks had to go and take votes away from Hillary in the Electoral vote.  Good example of just why the caucus system is phony as a three dollar bill, totally undemocratic, and a complete disservice to the voters.

     

  29. Flatus

    I was born in Los Angeles and had the good fortune to grow up in the state while most of it was still paradise.  Unfortunately when you put more than 40 million people in a basically desert state that can handle 12 million, things get really ugly.  We should have put the border fence on the east before 1960.

     

  30. Maybe the Orange Laird of the Bathroom Rings will see his Dark Tower flooded by raw sewage. (I am not referencing Mitch McTurtle but I may be referencing Steve Bananas.)

    Don’t let Sammy fool you; he is a Thurber Dog incarnate. He could pass for Muggs in “The Dog That Bit People.” Irascible, demanding, yet charming when he needs to be, we have never had a terrier like Sam.

    We’ve taken many of Sam’s stuffed toys away because of his Thanksgiving 2014 surgeries for an obstructed bowel. Two surgeries in a week because something went wrong with the first one. He either ingested acrylic  toy stuffing or chewed his own fur and it became impacted. Our 2014  Christmas cards were hand-made, a drawing of Sam with things rolling around in his guts: “The Dog Ate Our Christmas.”

    Eight thousand smackers to the vet that week. He sure did

    Oh, and we love Sam, too.

    That’S Thurber’s drawing of Muggs, not Sam.

  32. Thanks all for the nice comments. <3

    Pat: Yes, Dickens said it best and his message is still being retold after over 150 years. My view is, it bears repeating…often! Not sure how I feel about the Samantha Bee video. Do people who watch her show get the serious messages in between the comedy and snark? I hope so. I did love the snowman story & video. Sad reminder of what we’re losing and what’s taking his place…trump would never have a sense of humor like that.

    Pogo: My heart breaks seeing how trump & the fruit of his loins are going to treat the Presidency!

    mrdoodlesdog: Lovely video. Probably no surprise that I believe in angels!

    Renee: I’m on board with you! I’ll never use any title of respect for that evil man. I don’t even capitalize his name…he doesn’t deserve even that much respect.

    Jamie: It’s so hard to see more evidence of all the corruption that swayed the election, knowing that nothing seems to be leading to a public outcry, criminal charges or at least a solid investigation. There has been a bit of lip service on starting investigations but I’ll believe it when I see it :/

    Love the Sammy and Toby pix and stories. They should have a play date 🙂

  33. “And we will have made great strides in equality, when few have too much and fewer too little.” -Grundtvig

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