I Have to Face It

 “Life is what happens while you are making other plans.” –John Lennon, “Beautiful Boy”

 

And look at what a sweet potato contributed to our plant basket. It’s growing no matter what.

 

 I have something new to think about regarding the Star Wars Trilogy.

 Star Wars writer George Lucas made “The Force” a household phrase.

 And it has presented the idea that some people are born with more of it than others.

 And it can be inherited.

 Well, well, well, that leaves some of us poor peons out, doesn’t it?

 

In speaking with a teenager, I noticed that they believed in a “Dark Side,” as if darkness were a tangible entity.

 

Darkness is the absence of light.

When you enter a dark room, you turn on the light switch.

 When you turn it off, it is dark.

 There is no dark switch.

The sun emits light. It is a source of light. It creates light within itself through a series of atomic reactions that generate heat and, consequently, light. Most of what we call stars are suns. The planets are reflective bodies. (How can that be? A barren piece of dirt lights up? It beats me.) And we’ve seen pictures of the Earth glowing as seen from outer space.

 Move away from the sun, and it gets colder and dimmer until it is cold and dark.

 Hold up a mirror and you can reflect light. Light reflects on water and metal objects. If a cloud obscures the sun, it appears to darken it, but it doesn’t put out the light; the light is shining behind it.

 After we discovered we could move electrons along a wire (electricity), we could attach a light bulb to the end of it and have light. (Thomas Edison discovered 1,000 ways not to make a light bulb, until he finally hit on the idea—a wire whose electrons were dancing, excited, moving, would glow. It was hot. Heat puts out light.  (It was more complicated than that. He had to encase it in a glassed-in vacuum.)

I had to go into the house and ask my husband about electricity, and when we tried to reverse engineer it, we ended up with FIRE.

 Fire gave humans a way to light up the world. Energy. Heat. Light. That glowing ember would warm us, cook our food, and light the cave.

 Learn how to make fire, or a way to carry it away from a forest fire.

Find substances that would burn and can be contained. Ah ha, a torch. A Candle.

Remember, there is no dark switch.

 It is only the absence of light.

 

We use the metaphor of light and dark to represent good and evil.

 

The Force are words taken from The Source, which is in all of us.

 1.     Yesterday, a precious friend lost her life to Pancreatic cancer. She was a “Soul sister.” I miss her already.

 2. Today, I ventured into Internet territory, and bumped into another lost hero—Jane Goodall passed away today, October 1, 2025. I have followed that lady’s career ever since she was a young woman who had the dedication and fortitude necessary for the anthropologist David Leaky to take a chance on a young secretary and send her into the jungle to study chimpanzees. She changed how we define human beings, who were once described, among other things, as tool users. Well, Ms. Goodall discovered that so are chimpanzees. 

 

    Through her field observations and books, Jane Goodall became a legend.

 

 

3.  “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to celebrate the life of the electric vehicle tax credit.”Gone now:  Up to $4,000 off electric and hybrid vehicles.

 I wanted a little electric car my husband and I could bop around town in, but opted to have the pickup repaired instead. Now I have lost the chance for that reduction in the sale price.

 However, this past year, our daughter and I bought a hybrid after our car croaked.  

 “Former President Joe Biden, in 2022, as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, for the duration of its three-year life, the electric vehicle tax credit eased the financial burden for manufacturers and consumers as Americans embarked on the transition from fossil fuel-dependent cars to the more climate-friendly electric option.”— Ece Yildirim, Published September 30, 2025.

 

There is light shining behind the darkest cloud.

God Has Spoken

 Today, God is congratulating us humans for making it through another week of life. (The god* on Substack.)

1.     We survived the non-existent Rapture on Tuesday.

2.     We watched Jimmy Kimmel return to TV without restrictions. (As a result of a hue and cry from people who believe in free Speech, and knowing what companies fear most—losing money. They canceled their subscriptions to Disney and Hulu and sold their stock, then rose in voice protest.)

3.     We saw the Democrats attain the 218 votes needed to force the release of the Epstein files.

Really?

I blinked—see why I need God?

 

“Everywhere you look, good people are rising against defiance of tyranny.”

 

*God is a courageous, outspoken, witty man writing on Substack. He has kept many of us from a complete meltdown in this time of Political crisis.)

We are awakening from anesthesia!

Even as we speak:

“Behold the theater of fools. JD Vance is already tweeting that Democrats are about to shut down the government. The same government Republicans fully control. Every branch, every lever, every knob.”

 A moment of Refreshment from Gary V:

 “Start appreciating yourself ❤️ start understanding that for many Reasons too many of you put yourselves down and beat yourselves up … STOP 🛑 THAT SHIT … I am telling you, you’re great… now believe it yourself - stop comparing, stop worrying about outside noise and judgment - start slowing down and focusing on what actually matters. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Yes!

Jimmy Kimmel is back on the air.

The people spoke in the way they had to speak — selling their stocks and canceling their subscriptions to the Disney Channel and Hulu. Hollywood got into the act. People protested against censorship.

Somewhere, we got the idea that Free Speech was still free in America.

 

Since our first president, George Washington, political commentators, journalists, and political cartoonists have poked fun at the President. (No late-night television in those days) But journalists and artists had the power of the pen, and they used it. They have criticized Presidents,  mocked them, and said outrageous things about them. And the Presidents probably didn't like it, but they took it.

Our present President can't.

He issues threats against companies, people, citizens, corporations, universities, the free press, books, and late-night talk hosts. Against anyone who criticizes him.  

But then we gave our present Presidential immunity. (That is so stupid, I can't think about it.)  Did they really believe that man would live forever, or that the Republicans would always be in power? When you grant immunity to the office, it is passed down to the next. Didn't anyone think of that?

Don't give immunity to anyone--you, me, not anyone.

We thought the Constitution was the authority, and the President, hand on the Bible, the other hand in the air, has twice vowed to uphold the Constitution—it is a prerequisite for the job. It seems that doesn't matter to him.

Why do you think we have the Congress and the Senate? We have judges, lawyers, and the Supreme Court? It is hoped to ensure a safe and just system.

We are trying to keep our freedoms, not tear them down.

And this Right-wing, Left-wing thing isn't enough; now it is extreme right or extreme left. And if anything goes wrong, the President immediately screams that the Left-wing radicals did it.*

Oh please!

 

And stop besmirching the word "Liberal." 

 

 

*The are probably out championing the cause for a tighter gun control.

And I Thought Last Week was Tough

 When someone asked Isaac Asimov, "If you knew you would die tomorrow, what would you do?"   

He answered:  "I'd type faster.

I have adopted his answer.

Not that anyone told me I was going to die tomorrow, but when you go into the hospital, they always bring up the end-of-life directive. They want to know what to do with you if your heart stops beating.

I had a heart attack this past week and was in the hospital for two days.

But now I'm home and talking to you, and my little fingers (not little) are typing faster.

I had a super stressful event, and I thought my reaction was an adrenaline rush, except that after my daughter badgered me into having a blood test, it revealed that the enzyme that is released when the heart is damaged was in my blood.

See, your heart calls out for help when it needs it.

Take that advice to heart. If you need help or support, ask for it. Our mission is, or should be, to support each other.

And see how often we use the word 'heart'? "Bless your heart." "Heart-break," I love you with all my heart."

Your heart is sweet and lovable—love it back.

The afternoon after I came home from the hospital, I lay on the couch reading a novel. Sweetpea our little dog lay on the pillow beside my head. Zeke, our 3-legged German Shepherd lay on the couch at my feet warming them. And Laffe, the coon-hound lay on the floor beside me.

 This is heaven, I thought.

 

  

Since I believe in the Mind-Body-Spirit connection, that our physical issues are not separate from our minds, and that our minds are not separate from our Spiritual understandings, I'm here to say, I don't know what the f* I'm talking about.

But I do know about being grateful.

I love my life, and I love having one. I love having the opportunity to express myself on the page and having people read what I write. There are many reasons to be grateful.

And today I just had a conversation with my husband about LIFE.

As I have mentioned before, I signed up for a major in Biology after the college professor yelled out over a class of about 200, "This is the study of LIFE."

Biologists study living things—and dead ones. But they don't know about life.

Nobody does.

The subject moves into an esoteric, philosophical, theological, idealistic, and magical reality, and yes, a biological one, but that's the physical part.

We are more than our bodies.

Think about it, we have always been alive—except for First Cause, and I don't know about that. We came from our parents, who came from their parents, back and way back some 300,000 years to the Mitochondrial Eve, the first woman. How did she come into being?

Here we are, a result of that magical progression, and look what we are doing. Instead of saying, "Wow, look at us. Aren't we lucky!" We gripe and complain, and treat each other, as well as the animals and the earth, poorly.  I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about the collective humanity. Which, it seems to me, is having an identity crisis right now.

Collective humanity doesn't know who they are or what to think. Or they believe so strongly that they will beat their fellows over the head with a belief system, or shoot them.

Yet, they have the spark of life in them.

Where did that come from?

You might say, "From God," but that is magic. What is Life?

Those ova and sperm were alive before they got together and fired off an entirely new set of instructions.

 

It's time for me to reconnect with some of my long-held inspirations and motivations.

Are you with me?

Here is my oracle for the day from Thomas and Penelope Pauley:

"The sooner you define your life, the easier it is for the Universe to create it for you."

 

This Week Has Been Tough

My grandson got caught up in the Gaza War. He found a Palestinian man asking for money, and that man showed my grandson his dead little boy, and says he needs money for his little girl—who is darling—looks healthy, plump, and bright-eyed. He says she is sick, on the verge of malnutrition, and needs medicine.

And my young man (grandson) feels responsible. He was in tears, wanting to help, afraid that man would will lose his little girl, and thinking that if he doesn't do something that family will die. He posted something on line and got about 100 hits.

The far reaches of war.

Is that man real, or a hoax?

 Is he bleeding the hearts of people whose hearts go out to people who are suffering?

Well, it worked.

That man has raised $40,000 so far, more than many US citizens make in a year.

And my child is traumatized!

And I can't get people to buy a 99-cent book.

And I stupidly want to be a writer.

 

And words heal so they say. Right, and a sad story sells.

My father went to war, and I thought wars were the worst thing that could happen.

And lo, these many years later, they are still warring!

I feel too terrible to write more…

 

But wait... my husband comes into my office to tell me he's been reading about how scientists are unraveling catastrophic events that have occurred on the Earth in times past.

Catastrophic events! Augggh!

And I believe as Kermit the Frog sang, "Sing of good things not bad, sing of happy not sad." (Written by Joe Raposo for the TV show Sesame Street.)

Watch this video, and you will feel better: It's The Carpenters singing "Sing, sing a song.)

Sing

 

And then there is Gary V “Fight for enjoyment.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/DN5icBLDh28/

 

Mice, Ash, India

 

I awakened this morning with my mind awash in memories.

I was running events through my head to find the one memory that would volunteer to open my memoir. You don't have to begin a memoir with "I was born in …" It can start anyplace. Playing in my mind, what fun! Often, when I come to my office, I get distracted, but in bed, memories flow.

Ideas, so said one writer, are like shooting ducks (Don't do it!), but the idea is the same: shoot quickly for they will be gone in an instant.

I hit a memory of my daughter who found a nest of baby mice in an old chest of drawers she wasn't using. She and her son thought those babies were so cute—they had fur, but their eyes weren't open. And since my daughter and son feared that the mother wasn’t coming back, they began feeding the babies with a teeny bottle.

My daughter had planned a birthday celebration for herself, which included a two-night stay in a hotel with a room that featured a jacuzzi tub. She didn't trust her son to take sufficient care of the baby mice or me either, or didn't want to bother me, so she took her little stash of mice on a trip, smuggled them into an upscale hotel, fed them, had her stay, and smuggled them out.

The mice thrived, and when they were old enough — with eyes open and eating regular food — she and her son took them to a field near a pond and ceremoniously released the city mice to take their chances as country mice.

I have heard some people say that the best thing you can spend your money on is something to make memories.

Last night I completed a novel where the author said, "It takes a lot of funds to be a Vagabond."  She wished she could travel the world. A present, she was being a paid companion for a disabled girl.  They were following a trail of the girl's mother that led to India. What a description of India: "The land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendour and rags, of palaces and hovels…the land of a hundred tongues, of a thousand religions…" --Mark Twain.

India: After a 14-hour flight six of us from San Diego landed in New Delhi, India.

Three were seminar leaders quite devoted to the “Holy” man we were going to see. We three women were not Devotees, but considered ourselves open-minded. One woman left early, so that left Florencia and I as traveling companions.  (I loved her, one couldn't ask for a better traveling companion). We opted for the chance to visit a guru, who, so it showed us via a movie, could produce vibhuti (holy ash) from his hand, and kept a giant jug flowing with vibhuti as long as his hand kept stirring it. (Don’t get me, I’ve seen better magic acts.)

So, we visited an ashram and slept in a cement room, ate cayenne pepper coated cashew nuts and drank lime soda, for we were afraid to eat the food. (We did eat in their cafeteria once, a rice dish all participants ate with their fingers.) Following that, we traveled by train across the countryside to visit the Taj Mahal. On the way home we made a few airline stops. Yet when we landed in New Delhi, the windows of the airport looked like my car window after the dog's nose had circled it a dozen times, and walking outside, the scent of baby poop hit me. It seemed to permeate the air, and if you remember, baby poop has a basic sweetness layered with others.

I understood why the Indian people are strong on incense.

These descriptions are cryptic; I’m saving the full ones for the memoir, which, instead of calling it a memoir, I prefer to call it "A journey."

A memoir sounds so staid. A journey is fun, an adventure, and isn’t that what life is? There was a time when being a Vagabond sounded appealing, but for now, I'm letting my fingers do the walking, aka typing. My memories are like a river flowing through my mind, and I never know where it will splash next.

 

 

 P.S. This past week I ordered the teeny paper book Where the Frogs Sing Café’ I have been talking about. It came in two days. Whoa, and that was with on-demand printing. 

It cost me $4.60, so see I am starting out in the hole.

An now I found that the price went up to $5.20 after I joined UK.

It is presently being offered for FREE on Kindle Unlimited, and to purchase the Kindle version is 99 cents. Remember, I am keeping my WHERE series under 10,000 words, so as I said, the book is small.

Since not everyone has a Kindle, I am offering a FREE transcript on a private site that I will link to you via your email address. 

Click here: Yes, Please 

 Yep, there is a physical copy in on my desk.

"What if We Had a War and Nobody Came?"*

 

 

There's a computer under there.

 

 

"Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words can heal us."

—Sobya Tunsleu

A change from what we heard as a child isn't it?

 

"We use ‘softeners' in our language," Tony Robbins said at a seminar.  We use euphemisms. For example, we write "the F-word" because we don't want to say it or write it.

Presently, in essays, commentaries, and media talks, we have used the word 'Pedophile' so much that it has lost its power. If we described what a pedophile did to young girls and boys, we would be shocked and perhaps up in arms.

No one dares write that, for they would be censored, or labeled as containing adult language, or they would fear reprisal in many ways.

I have noticed a curious phenomenon.

When I was into my political rantings, I got more readers.

Anger has power.

What about healing words?

What are they?

For while I felt that talking happy talk was frivolous when so much unhappiness and control existed in the world. I thought I was giving the message that I didn't care. I feared I would be ignoring the situation.

I do care.

In the '60s we were confronted with this message:

"What if We Had a War and Nobody Came?"

Could that principle be applied to the hype we are experiencing now—hype which makes us afraid, causes worry, and keeps us off kilter? You know, creating fearful people makes it easier to control them.

Don't go there.

We seem more complacent now than in times past. Have we lost spirit? Do we feel we have no power? Do we feel railroaded, and thus, we have shut down?

Somebody said long ago, "Without vision the people perish." (Proverbs 29:18) It's hard to have fun with the heavy blanket of fear draped over us like a shroud.

Isn't that their intent?

And we are falling for it.

 

What if many of those attention-grabbing sites weren't visited? (Is that what I am doing? No. I’m offering thoughts you can take them or leave them. And my frogs sing of good times, not bad.)  Be aware. Businesses must advertise or nobody knows they exist. It's tricky. However, if we really pay attention, we can tell the difference. What if we are more selective? What if we sought out simpatico individuals who uplift us? What if we found people who encouraged us to be better versions of ourselves?

We might begin thinking our own thoughts, instead of those of influencers.  Maybe we would connect to a higher power. Possibly, we could lay aside some of our less attractive tendencies.

It is human nature to enjoy "Talking Trouble."

It takes a stalwart soul to stay out of that trap.

We are stalwart souls!

We are the ones to make a better day.

So, if words can shock us, Sobya Tunsleu is correct when she says that words can heal us.

Let's go that'a way.

Love,

 Jo

 

P.S.Yea!, Amazon published my paperback book. I didn't think it would pass their test. 

Where The Frogs Sing Cafe'  Available on Kindle unlimited for FREE.