During the 1970s, a social phenomenon known as the "personal-growth movement" swept across this country. Led by gurus known as humanistic psychologists, millions of people began the quest for realizing their full potential. The goal in all this was to become "self-actualizing". No one seemed to know exactly what that meant, but it sounded good. It was the key phrase in a decade of psychobabble. Human-potential psychology became the rage, and people went to great extremes (and expense) in order to find their "space", find their "center", and find "themselves". Options included encounter groups and sensitivity training (where people yelled and told each other what they didn't like about them); learning the Maharishi Yogi's style of transcendental meditation (as long as you brought a white hanky, some flowers, and a sizable amount of money); rolfing (I don't think that means throwing up), est (where the leader called people assholes and wouldn't let them go to the bathroom), transcational analysis (in which you learned which "ego state" you were operating from), marijuana smoking, hot-tub soaking, nude massage, and a whole bunch of others. Looking back, it all seems pretty silly. People actually became "growth junkies". Since I was one of them, I can afford to have a good laugh about it. The only unfortunate thing is that I never did learn how to rolf.
I had bought into the movement because, like countless others, I felt something was missing. I was looking for the fulfilled life but never found it in the personal-growth movement. It had become expensive, exhausting, and serious. Too serious. And it actually did more harm that good, because it began to weigh me down. Then a funny and unexpected thing happened. During this time, yet totally unrelated to my relentless search for personal nirvana, I saw two movies which had a more positive and lasting effect on me than all these "growth experiences" put together. Just think, for the price of two movie tickets and about four hours of my time, I could have saved myself a lot of trouble.
To be continued....
The problem I was having with my computer righted itself... the 'i' is now working just fine... however, the 'm' is now giving me problems. Oh well, this too shall pass.
So, Friday September 4th was a good day. I drove out to a little cafe, bakery, general store out in the country. I've been past it many times over the years and had never stopped there, didn't even realize the bakery & cafe were there, just thought it was a store. My friend DJ had suggested we meet there for coffee and I am so glad she did. It's a delightful place that I would love to go to again, and very reasonable prices too. Tea & a bowl of ice cream only cost me $2.50!! In town, just the ice cream would have cost that much. While there, I got to enjoy many laughs, some with DJ and some with the awesome lady that owns & operates the place (which, by the way, is for sale and if I could physically do it I'd love to run such a business). After our very lengthy stay there, we took Reba and went for a walk to the nearby river. I never walk near my home as it's just not safe, the speed limit past here is 70k and most people do a lot faster than that, I'd guess the normal to be around 120k, and they never pull out to give you any room as you walk down the narrow edge of the road. Out there in Salmon Valley, people slow down and pull over to the other side of the road to give pedestrians room, and no one seemed to be driving so excessively fast as they do here either. It was awesome and I would so love to live somewhere like that so Reba & I could enjoy daily walks.
When I finally said good-bye to DJ and left there, I drove to Falkland where I put 'just enough' gas into Vaquero (my truck), then drove over the mountain to the town of Chase where I met Doris & Al. Doris & I had talked on the computer in regards to her birds, she is having health issues so must sell most of her feather friends and chose to drop her asking price so 4 of them could come live with me. Yup, I now have 4 new Cockatiels. They are used to being in a cage with people around but are not hand tamed at all and didn't have names either... until I came along, lol. I'm not sure if these will be their 'forever names' or are 'just until they tell me their real ones' but I'm now calling the mated pair Snowflake (pure white female) & Stud Muffin (gray & white male) and the two young males who are both gray & white with yellow heads and the orange ear circles are Bubba (more white on his back) and Billy Bob. Apparently Snowflake & Stud Muffin have produced many beautiful colors in the babies they've had together, I look forward to them producing lots more here. I'm not sure how old these 2 are, forgot to ask or maybe I asked and forget the answer, the 'boys' though are both under a year. (From the ad of Kijiji: I have for sale 4 Beautiful cockatiels. 2 awesome male pied color. They are around 9 or 10 months old. Love being with people but NOT hand tame and 1 BONDED pair. The male is a whiteface split to pearl and the female is pure white. They have been together for 3 years. They have had some beautiful colored babies from dark silver pearl, white with light silver pearl, whiteface, and saddleback. (I think thats what it is called). They are all in beautiful feather and very healthy, happy birds.) I really enjoyed meeting Doris and plan to keep in touch.
I broke down and got a chicken burger at A&W before I left Chase, hey a girl's gotta eat, even if it's not the healthiest choice and it could have been worse. On the drive home by way of the main highway this time, I gave in and let Reba ride inside the cab with me. I'm sure she will be telling all about it on her blog, so I'll leave that story alone. I always get a laugh out of looking in my mirror and seeing her half in/half out of the cab as we drive along. I stopped at my favorite gas station along the way home and filled Vaquero's gas tank, decided I was too tired to visit Mom and still had much to do when I got home.
I had been happy to find that the cage that came with the 'tiels comes all apart. It's a large steel, powder coated cage so is very heavy. I did notice some spots where the powder coating has come off and there is bare steel a bit rusted, though didn't see all the damage until I was home, had it in the house, and was cleaning it all up before putting it together and the birds back into it. Oh well, it will still be a good cage and will work for any years. I might, in some places, clean it up and paint it with Tremclad rust paint to protect the steel from further rusting. For now though, it's clean and has 4 occupants in it.
It was wonderful to finally have my shoes off and my feet up, sitting in my recliner chair... ahhhh. All in all it was a great day and I enjoyed many opportunities to laugh. There were also many beautiful things to take photos of along the way... and I didn't have my camera with me. I 'never' leave home without it though this time it got left sitting on the chair beside the door where I left it as I was getting ready to leave. Sheeeesh!!
I have so many things to be grateful for... including though not limited to:
- time with a friend
- ice cream
- lots to laughs throughout my day
- a safe trip
- my dependable truck
- meeting new people
- seeing many beautiful creations of nature
- beautiful birds
- time in a peaceful area of our ever too busy world
- a walk with Reba & DJ
-
So, Friday September 4th was a good day. I drove out to a little cafe, bakery, general store out in the country. I've been past it many times over the years and had never stopped there, didn't even realize the bakery & cafe were there, just thought it was a store. My friend DJ had suggested we meet there for coffee and I am so glad she did. It's a delightful place that I would love to go to again, and very reasonable prices too. Tea & a bowl of ice cream only cost me $2.50!! In town, just the ice cream would have cost that much. While there, I got to enjoy many laughs, some with DJ and some with the awesome lady that owns & operates the place (which, by the way, is for sale and if I could physically do it I'd love to run such a business). After our very lengthy stay there, we took Reba and went for a walk to the nearby river. I never walk near my home as it's just not safe, the speed limit past here is 70k and most people do a lot faster than that, I'd guess the normal to be around 120k, and they never pull out to give you any room as you walk down the narrow edge of the road. Out there in Salmon Valley, people slow down and pull over to the other side of the road to give pedestrians room, and no one seemed to be driving so excessively fast as they do here either. It was awesome and I would so love to live somewhere like that so Reba & I could enjoy daily walks.
When I finally said good-bye to DJ and left there, I drove to Falkland where I put 'just enough' gas into Vaquero (my truck), then drove over the mountain to the town of Chase where I met Doris & Al. Doris & I had talked on the computer in regards to her birds, she is having health issues so must sell most of her feather friends and chose to drop her asking price so 4 of them could come live with me. Yup, I now have 4 new Cockatiels. They are used to being in a cage with people around but are not hand tamed at all and didn't have names either... until I came along, lol. I'm not sure if these will be their 'forever names' or are 'just until they tell me their real ones' but I'm now calling the mated pair Snowflake (pure white female) & Stud Muffin (gray & white male) and the two young males who are both gray & white with yellow heads and the orange ear circles are Bubba (more white on his back) and Billy Bob. Apparently Snowflake & Stud Muffin have produced many beautiful colors in the babies they've had together, I look forward to them producing lots more here. I'm not sure how old these 2 are, forgot to ask or maybe I asked and forget the answer, the 'boys' though are both under a year. (From the ad of Kijiji: I have for sale 4 Beautiful cockatiels. 2 awesome male pied color. They are around 9 or 10 months old. Love being with people but NOT hand tame and 1 BONDED pair. The male is a whiteface split to pearl and the female is pure white. They have been together for 3 years. They have had some beautiful colored babies from dark silver pearl, white with light silver pearl, whiteface, and saddleback. (I think thats what it is called). They are all in beautiful feather and very healthy, happy birds.) I really enjoyed meeting Doris and plan to keep in touch.
I broke down and got a chicken burger at A&W before I left Chase, hey a girl's gotta eat, even if it's not the healthiest choice and it could have been worse. On the drive home by way of the main highway this time, I gave in and let Reba ride inside the cab with me. I'm sure she will be telling all about it on her blog, so I'll leave that story alone. I always get a laugh out of looking in my mirror and seeing her half in/half out of the cab as we drive along. I stopped at my favorite gas station along the way home and filled Vaquero's gas tank, decided I was too tired to visit Mom and still had much to do when I got home.
I had been happy to find that the cage that came with the 'tiels comes all apart. It's a large steel, powder coated cage so is very heavy. I did notice some spots where the powder coating has come off and there is bare steel a bit rusted, though didn't see all the damage until I was home, had it in the house, and was cleaning it all up before putting it together and the birds back into it. Oh well, it will still be a good cage and will work for any years. I might, in some places, clean it up and paint it with Tremclad rust paint to protect the steel from further rusting. For now though, it's clean and has 4 occupants in it.
It was wonderful to finally have my shoes off and my feet up, sitting in my recliner chair... ahhhh. All in all it was a great day and I enjoyed many opportunities to laugh. There were also many beautiful things to take photos of along the way... and I didn't have my camera with me. I 'never' leave home without it though this time it got left sitting on the chair beside the door where I left it as I was getting ready to leave. Sheeeesh!!
I have so many things to be grateful for... including though not limited to:
- time with a friend
- ice cream
- lots to laughs throughout my day
- a safe trip
- my dependable truck
- meeting new people
- seeing many beautiful creations of nature
- beautiful birds
- time in a peaceful area of our ever too busy world
- a walk with Reba & DJ
-
1 comment:
Wonderful my friend. :)
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