Wa. Wal, wal – I am about fed UP with all of this!

I’ve been trying to spend more time with friends and family, myself, if just to keep away from the TV and all the trash we have to deal with on a daily basis. Some days it’s just too, too much and it sucks the life right out of you.

But Ol’ Sweet Mutt keeps me laughing everyday with some new antic of his. The other day we were way off in the woods, and I had to pee rather urgently. So I told Mutt to “wait”, and normally he will automatically come to a halt and wait for me to say “O.K.”. This day, for some reason, just as I started, Sweet Mutt started my way; I didn’t think much about it, because I thought he’d stop. But he ran up to take a look and ran his nose right up under the stream of pee. Oh My, how I laughed at him as I said, “Uh, huh … serves You right, Big Nosey”. Of course I washed his face real good for him, when we got back home.

It’s been in the high 80s and low 90s since the start of June ’til now. It’s the high humidity combined with the heat that really gets everyone here. I can hardly wait to see how hot it gets next month. But that’s nothing compared to the 20 straight days of triple digit heat Phoenix is getting. It’s a dry heat, which makes it more tolerable, but just how tolerable can one be when it heats 119 like it has? Wow.

I’m reading a lot of fiction these days and just trying to relax. My blood pressure seems to have been getting a bit out of control over the past few months, so I’m staying away from anything or anyone who irritates me to the point of anger or near anger.

I’d like to see another ten or twenty years, but it won’t happen if I don’t stop letting things beyond my control bother me so much.

I spent this past week in the arms of Mother Nature and loved every minute of it, freeing my mind from the everyday concerns of what our government was doing behind closed doors and the day by day encroachment of tyranny upon our traditional way of life and freedom and liberty. I stood far and away from this so-called civilization and cleansed my soul with the magnificent grandeur of life without the busy hum of technology or the buzzing of the collective hive of humanity and many of the pitiful creatures caught in its trap. Escaping the madness of crowds in the solitude and quiet of the Great Outdoors, experiencing the sanctity of all things wild, frees one’s mind and one’s spirit in an awakening that can never be achieved in any other way.

Me and Sweet Mutt watched deer, rabbits, groundhogs and the buzzards picking the meat from the bones of the unlucky ones. We even saw a flock of wild turkey waddling their way through the woods, as we walked many miles in the woods, getting drenched by the few, hard summer storms that have come our way and soaking it all in. In the midst of these storms, with their straight-line winds and lightning strikes, one feels one’s own mortality and the minor importance we all play in this great expanse of nature.

It’s good to be alone, I think; not always, but just often enough to recharge one’s self. One can never really cleanse and purify his mind without escaping the incessant flood of human propaganda, lies and deceit.

It brings to mind the interesting words of William Wordsworth who once wrote:

“Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower, we will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind; in the primal sympathy which having been must ever be; in the soothing thoughts that spring out of human suffering; in the faith that looks through death, in years that bring the philosophical mind.”

I know, however, that the many hours Sweet Mutt and I stood by the river in rapt silence … well O.K., I was in rapt silence while Mutt woofed at everything that moved – LOL … I felt at home.

Home, of course, can be a bit of a complicated word, especially for those who make their home wherever they throw their hat, sorta like the song. We’re time-bound beings always moving into the future, moment by moment — travelers who are home one minute and gone the next, a natural cycle, the turning of the seasons.

Life is sublime, and oh what beauty there is to behold in the days gone by. Will we ever see such times again?

“The birds they sang at the break of day. Start again, I heard them say. Don’t dwell on what has passed away or what is yet to be …“. ~ Leonard Cohen

And so, I look ahead with anticipation of things to come and a desire to fill my remaining days with all the good in the world, even when darkness swirls around me. I hope to have made a trainload of great memories for the retelling over the next twenty or thirty years, the Good Lord willing.

I hope the Good Lord blesses You with many more Great Years too, because You aren’t wasting them at all. From what I can tell, You’re a bright spot in everyone’s life who knows You. You deserve a full life and time to make many more wonderful memories with all who love You.

Keep Laughing and Keep Smiling, and above all else, Keep Having Enough Fun for the Both of Us.

And yes … I’ll be certain to tell Nurse Kelli that You send Your regards when I speak with her tomorrow …

July 23, 2023

Justin O. Smith ~ Author

~ The Author ~
Justin O. Smith has lived in Tennessee off and on most of his adult life, and graduated from Middle Tennessee State University in 1980, with a B.S. and a double major in International Relations and Cultural Geography – minors in Military Science and English, for what its worth. His real education started from that point on. Smith is a frequent contributor to the family of Kettle Moraine Publications.